off route: Zion Trip

On Thursday and Friday I went with my friend Bob to Zion to try a famous route called Moonlight Buttress. The climb follows a 1" finger crack 1200' up a prominent pillar on Zion's West Rim and is one of America's best long free routes. I'd tried it once before, in 2008, but it felt way beyond me.

It still feels really difficult, but I think I can do it. Really, I just decided that I can't afford not to do it so I'll put in however much work it takes. If it takes me a year, or another 5 years...

Bob and I made good progress. On Thursday, we met at 4 am, drove to Zion, crossed the river and climbed 5 or 6 pitches, half-way up, on a cold and cloudy day. It gets dark early, so we rapped down, crossed the river again and grabbed some dinner in Springdale. On Friday, to check out the upper half of the route, we hiked an hour or so up the Angel's Landing trail and rappelled in and climbed the route in reverse order, rappelling all the way to the ground.

The route breaks down roughly to: 5.9, 5.10b, 11c, 10d, 12a, 12d, 12a, 12a/b, 12b, 12a, 10d. The crux pitches start around 400' up, with a boulder problem on the first 12a pitch, and sustain all the way to the top. Individually, each pitch is fairly manageable. The trick is climbing efficiently so that you can do all 6 5.12's in a row.

We left Friday feeling beat down but excited. I took two days off and headed back for a solo mission on Monday and Tuesday (Bob, who also does rope access, had an inspection course in California).

The easiest and safest way to climb solo is to go top down. So you rappel to the top of the pitch you want to climb, fix the rope, rappel to the bottom of the pitch, climb back up, set the rope for rappel, rappel to the top of the next pitch down and so on... all the way to the ground. It's a bit cumbersome, and definitely unnerving being up high alone, but also amazing and relaxing, once you get acclimitized to the exposure.

Besides the amazing climbing on the route, you also get to enjoy some of the most amazing scenery the Southwest has to offer. 1000' to 2000' walls in every direction, the Virgin River flowing through the narrow canyon, smatterings of snow, and, since it's January, very few people. I saw turkey and mule deer every day, plus a desert fox, peregrines and lots of ravens riding thermals alongside the cliff faces.